Superloop’s board says it has ended exclusive sales discussions with QIC Private Capital, after the two failed to reach an agreement on a possible acquisition of the network operator by QIC
Earlier this month Superloop announced that in late April it had received a $494 million acquisition offer from the Queensland government-owned QIC. The offer of $1.95 per share was a $0.05 premium on a previously undisclosed offer from QIC earlier in April.
Superloop said after a “careful review of the revised indicative proposal” it had determined it was in the best interests of its shareholders to grant QIC “a period of approximately three weeks to conduct due diligence on an exclusive basis ... in order to establish whether an acceptable binding transaction can be agreed.”
In a statement today Superloop said its board in discussions with QIC had “been unable to agree to a transaction and on that basis, the parties have decided to discontinue the period of exclusivity.”
Superloop “remains focused on executing its growth strategy across Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong to realise the significant value of its Asia Pacific fibre infrastructure assets,” the statement said.
Superloop was spun out of interconnection-as-a-service provider Megaport. In 2015, the company listed on the ASX.
For the 12 months to June 2018, Superloop reported revenue of $125 million, representing an increase of 109.3 per cent on the prior comparable period. The company report its first positive full year net profit after tax in FY18, with NPAT of $7.1 million for the year compared to a loss of $1.2 million in the prior year.
The company operates fibre networks in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. It is also part of the consortium that backed the INDIGO cable system connecting Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Since it was launched as an independent company, Superloop has carried out a string of acquisitions including Subpartners (which like Superloop and Megaport was founded by Bevan Slattery), and wireless network operators BigAir, NuSkope and GX2.
Last year it launched a retail Internet service provider arm, acquiring 10,000 fixed line broadband subscribers from SkyMesh.